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With Aleppo encircled, West seeks wildcard to save their terror hordes.

January 24, 2015 – The Syrian Arab Army is reportedly close to completely encircling militants that have occupied the northern city of Aleppo since they invaded it from NATO territory in 2012. Once the encirclement is complete, analysts believe the the city will be finally liberated, in a process similar to the retaking of Homs further south.

The desperation of militants facing this final phase in the Battle for Aleppo is indicated by their Western sponsors’ attempts to broker a ceasefire and arrange “aid” to reach them. Similar attempts were made in vain during the closing phases in the Battle for Homs in mid-2014 – with the city of Homs having been an epicenter of terrorist activity beginning in 2011, and now under the control of the Syrian government. Small pockets of militants have been isolated within Homs, allowing order to be restored across the majority of the city and the surrounding region.

As the Syrian government systematically regains control of a nation up-ended by Western-backed terrorists flooding the country accompanied by a seemingly inexhaustible torrent of cash, weapons, and equipment, the desperation of these Western interests has visibly increased.

The Guardian, chief among the many propagandists distorting the conflict since it began in 2011, is now attempting to form a narrative extorting global security by claiming only by NATO establishing a no-fly-zone over Aleppo and repelling Syrian government forces, can “moderate rebels” hold on to the city and repel lingering “Islamic State” (ISIS) forces.

In a report titled, “Syrian rebels prepare to defend ruined Aleppo as troops and militias close in,” the Guardian claims:
Since then the regime’s incremental gains have been hard fought, with most inroads being pushed back by rebel fighters and locals, both still reeling from their losses of manpower in the war with Isis. Meanwhile Isis has lurked 20 miles away, taunting the Islamic Front with a radio station it has set up that regularly plays Islamic chants insulting the group’s members.

“They were strategic [losses] for us,” said the Aleppo commander of the gains by Isis. “And [yet] the Americans doubt our commitment to fighting them? When [the US] came back to Syria, we thought the least they could do is to stop Assad’s air force from flying. But they have bombed the city more than at any time before the Americans arrived. Of course we believe they have a deal with the regime. It is obvious.”

Of course the reality is that the US has merely used ISIS as a pretext to violate Syrian airspace, with the next step being to establish long-planned no-fly-zones, if possible, to thwart the Syrian Arab Army. Just as in Libya, the no-fly-zone would simply hand the rest of Syria over to ISIS and other Al Qaeda affiliates – clearly the most dominate militant force engaged in fighting the Syrian government, and clearly the recipients of the vast majority of material support supplied by NATO and their regional partners, most notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel.

Government forces (in red) have nearly completed the encirclement of Aleppo.

It should be noted, that while the Guardian claims the remaining encircled militants in Aleppo are at odds with ISIS, the same report admits these same militants coordinate with US State Department listed foreign terrorist organization, Al Nusra. The Guardian would admit:

The fight for Zahraa, one of the few Shia enclaves in northern Syria, is being led by the al-Qaida-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra, with whom the Islamic Front have an understanding but no formal alliance. After barely holding ground for much of the past year, al-Nusra recently seized large chunks of territory near the Turkish border, reasserting itself as a power player at the expense of non-jihadist groups. The fast-changing dynamic is forcing a new reckoning with the Islamic Front, which says it has waited fruitlessly for help from Arab states that was promised but never delivered.

These same ISIS forces that are allegedly at odds with “moderate rebels” have seen thousands of so-called “moderates” defecting into their ranks recently bringing with them large sums of Western cash and weapons. That Al Qaeda – both Al Nusra and ISIS – seems to thrive along the Turkish border indicates that NATO support is not at all going to “moderate rebels,” but instead, intentionally to Al Qaeda, or to moderate groups NATO knows is working with, or soon to join Al Qaeda. Continue reading →

TEHRAN (FNA)- The number of foreign-backed militants fighting against the Syrian government has exceeded 20,000, media reports said.

The terrorists are identified as coming from 50 different countries, including some 4,000 from the West European nations, WND news website reported.

The report said 1,200 of the fighters have come from France, and another 500-600 each from Britain and Germany. But Belgium produced the highest per capita participation, with 40 fighters per million population, it said.

Meantime, Kurdish fighters in the last 24 hours expelled ISIL terrorists from the Syrian border town of Kobani after more than four months of fighting, said a monitor.

Fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had “expelled all Islamic State (of Iraq and the Levant) fighters from Kobani and have full control of the town”, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Kurds are pursuing some terrorists on the Eastern outskirts of Kobani, “but there is no more fighting inside now”, Rahman said.

Kobani, one of the largest cities in the Kurdish region bordering Turkey, was besieged by the ISIL terrorist group in September. Since then, Kurdish forces have been trying to drive the Takfiris out of the city.

In December 2014, Syrian Kurds leader Saleh Muslim Mohammad said that the main goal of Kurdish forces fighting against ISIL was full liberation of Kobani.

Meantime, the Syrian troops carried out precise and intensive operations against the armed groups near the Syria-Lebanon borders, killing too many militants.

The military offensive targeted the armed groups in the Wadi al-Kahf area near the Lebanese borders in the Eastern countryside of Syria’s central province of Homs.

It added that the army units inflicted hefty losses upon the rebels.

Elsewhere, the Syrian army killed 20 rebels on Sunday in the Northwestern province of Idlib. It was part of the army forces’ ongoing attacks on the militants’ positions in the countryside of Idilb, close to the Turkish borders.

Also, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Israeli military is obviously supporting terrorist groups in Syria by conducting airstrikes in the crisis-hit country.

“Whenever we make advances in some place, they (the Israelis) attack in order to undermine the army. It’s very clear,” Assad said in an interview with American magazine Foreign Affairs.

“That’s why some in Syria joke, ‘How can you say that Al-Qaeda doesn’t have an air force? They have the Israeli air force’,” he added.

His remarks came a week after an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at the village of Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights bordering Lebanon.

Six members of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah were killed in the attack.

The Tel Aviv regime has carried out several airstrikes in Syria since the start of the nearly four-year-old foreign-sponsored militancy there.

Damascus says Tel Aviv and its western allies are aiding the extremist terror groups operating inside Syria since March 2011.

Meantime, all groups of the Syrian opposition, except for the Istanbul-based Syrian National Coalition, participated in the inter-Syrian talks in Moscow, a well-informed diplomatic source said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian army continued its advances in the Southern parts of the country, and took back control of a strategic town in Damascus countryside.

The foreign-backed terrorists were pushed back from the town of Kafr Yabous in Damascus countryside and the army regained full control over the town.

Kafr Yabous is located in Al-Qalamoun region in Damascus countryside and it is only 11 kilometers from the borders with Lebanon.

The Al-Nusra Front terrorist group had control over the Kafr Yabous which is in the Southeastern parts of al-Zabadani town.

Tens of Al-Nusra terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured in fierce clashes with the Syrian troops.

Also in the past 24 hours, a large number of terrorists were killed in heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the Al-Nusra Front in Damascus province.

The army soldiers struck a heavy blow at the terrorists in the areas of al-Zabadani, Eastern Ghouta and Douma in Damascus countryside, killing and injuring scores of them.

Elsewhere, the Syrian Armed Forces, in a series of massive operations against militants’ strongholds on Sunday, gained more grounds in various battlefields in Homs province.

Syrian troops killed and injured so many anti-government fighters in Rajem al-Kaser, al-Sultaniyeh, Masa’dah and Um Sahrij in the Eastern countryside of the Central Homs province, a military source said.

Meantime, army’s attacks against Takfiri terrorists in the Western part of Ovania village, Western al-Samadaniyeh and Naba’a al-Sakher in al-Quneitra province, left scores of foreign-backed fighter killed and wounded.

Also, 20 terrorists affiliated to the so-called “Sham Hawks Group” were killed by the Syrian soldiers in Bazabou, Nahlia, Al-Treisi and Nahla in the Northwestern province of Idlib.

Also, the Syrian air force staged a massive targeted attack on a joint meeting of two major terrorist groups in Damascus countryside early on Sunday, killing and injuring a large number of the terrorist leaders.

The army airstrike targeted a gathering of Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar Al-Sham commanders in Mazaya district in the town of Zabadani in Damascus countryside.

A sum of 27 commanders of the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham were killed in the air raid.

The leader of the Al-Nusra Front, Abdulrahman Nassif, was also wounded during the airstrike.

Elsewhere, the Syrian army continued to make more gains in its fight against the Al-Nusra Terrorist Front in surrounding areas of Daraa province, killing at least 220 terrorists, a security source said.

The army soldiers stormed the hideouts of Al-Nusra Front in Ibta’ village and claimed the lives of more than 40 militants, a Syrian source said on condition of anonymity.

Also, some 30 terrorists were killed in heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the terrorist group in the town of Dael, located 14 km to North of Daraa city, the source added.

The security source further said the army also inflicted heavy losses on the terrorists in the areas of Qarfa, Namer, and al-Shaikh Miskeen and left over 150 al-Nusra terrorists dead.

Syria has been the scene of insurgency since 2011 when certain western powers and their regional allies voiced loudly that Syrian protests have no diplomatic solution and they started supplying the country’s opposition groups with their arms and funds.

In 2014, specially after victory of President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s presidential election, the army has gained upper hand in its anti-terrorism campaign, and has been partly successful in sealing borders with Turkey and Jordan.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Israeli military is obviously supporting terrorist groups in Syria by conducting airstrikes in the crisis-hit country.

“Whenever we make advances in some place, they (the Israelis) attack in order to undermine the army. It’s very clear,” Assad said in an interview with American magazine Foreign Affairs which will be published on Monday, press tv reported. [Editor’s note: You can read the full interview by clicking HERE]

“That’s why some in Syria joke, ‘How can you say that Al-Qaeda doesn’t have an air force? They have the Israeli air force’,” he added.

His remarks came a week after an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at the village of Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights bordering Lebanon.

Six members of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah and a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) were killed in the attack.

Iran’s Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi had traveled to Syria to provide consultation and help the Syrian government and nation counter the Takfiri terrorists in the country.

The Tel Aviv regime has carried out several airstrikes in Syria since the start of the nearly four-year-old foreign-sponsored militancy there.

Damascus says Tel Aviv and its western allies are aiding the extremist terror groups operating inside Syria since March 2011.

Hezbollah has vowed its response to the attack will be extremely painful.

IRGC Chief Major General Mohammad Ali Ja’fari also warned Israel on Tuesday that the Zionist entity “should await annihilating thunderbolts”.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian army made major advances in Hama countryside in the Central parts of the country and regained control of strategic towns in there.

The army units took control of Al-Jadideh, Al-Malh and Al-Jamileh towns in Mohrad-Salibieh road in Northwestern Hama countryside.

Hama province in Central Syria has a population of over 2 million people and it has been the scene of fierce clashes between the Syrian army and militants in the past three years.

Also in the past 24 hours, more than 4 notorious Al-Qaeda ringleaders were killed in fierce clashes between the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front.

Meantime, Sami al-Aridi, one of the ringleaders of the terrorist Al-Nusra Front in Syria, raised fraud accusations against Ahmad Jarba, the president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), saying he has stolen millions of dollars of international aids.

Writing on his Twitter page, Aridi said that Jarba had stolen $75mln of the international aids which were due to be allocated to the treatment of the wounded and refugee Syrians.

Also earlier this year, founder of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Riyadh Al-Asa’ad claimed that head of the Syrian opposition bloc Ahmad al-Jarba is a spy.

Al-Asa’ad’s accusation came as the rifts among the Syrian opposition are further widening.

Divisions among the foreign-based Syrian opposition have widened after Idris was replaced by Abdullah al-Bashir.

Idris along with more than a dozen senior militant commanders have severed ties with the SNC, widening divisions among the foreign-sponsored opposition.

The military wing of the opposition said it has sacked its chief of staff due to difficulties in the operations against the Syrian government.

The anti-Syria military coalition was established in 2011. But it has never been able to attract people in the war-torn country.

Also, a military source said that a unit of the Syrian army has killed 20 terrorists in Morek in Hama’s Northern countryside on Sunday.

Also in Aleppo, an army unit eliminated all members of an armed terrorist group in the last of Nazlet Al-Zebdieh in Seif Al-Doula and fully controlled a number of buildings there.

Meantime, the United Nation’s top humanitarian field operations official said more than 9 million Syrians had been displaced by the country’s conflict.

“Some 6.5 million of the displaced people are still inside Syria, while 2.7 million have fled to nearby countries,” John Ging said, warning that those numbers were likely to grow.

“Month-after-month, it’s 5,000 people that are being killed in this crisis. Hundreds of thousands have been injured in this crisis, and again with the intensification of the conflict, these numbers are growing all the time,” he said.

Army units pounded Saturday terrorist groups’ gatherings and dens in various areas across the country, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists’ ranks in lives and equipment.

Terrorists of Chechen and Turkish nationalities were killed in army operations that targeted terrorist groups’ gatherings in various areas in Damascus Countryside.

Army units killed all members of several armed terrorist groups in Al-Mleiha farms and Ein Tarma valley in Eastern Ghouta and destroyed all their weapons.

Qaderi Al-Sheikh Baker from Chechnya and Lawrence Al-Bashqati from Turkey were identified among the dead, in addition to Abdulrahman Al-Zarqawi and Ammar Al-Tout.

The army intensified operations on Joubar axis from the eastern side and destroyed several terrorists’ dens, leaving a number of them dead and wounded. Emad Matar and Mohammad Omar Juha were among the dead.

Meantime, Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) announced the final list of presidential contenders.

The SCC Spokesman announced that the final list of the country’s approved candidates for its upcoming presidential election came down to three individuals: Bashar Hafez Al-Assad, Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah Al-Nouri.

The final list of candidates was announced in a Saturday press conference by SCC Spokesperson Majid Khadra, who further added that “the announcement also serves as an official notification to the respective presidential contenders to begin their election campaign as of Sunday, May 11, 2014”.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Webster Griffin Tarpley, an author and historian from Washington, about the crisis in Syria.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: With the Syrian army being able to gain more ground and kill more insurgents, just how do you assess the Syrian crisis at this point in time?

Tarpley: On the one hand, the military developments of the past 24 hours or so confirmed this pattern of slow, steady, inexorable progress by the Syrian army against the rebels, of course, facilitated by the fact that the rebels are avidly fighting among themselves, killing each other, assassinating each other’s leaders and so forth. This then leads to a very grim political situation for the rebels and their international backers.

There’s going to be a friends of Syria meeting – again, that ironically named gathering. They’re going to be meeting in London next week. They really are in total disarray.

On the one hand, the Syrian National Coalition, supposedly linked to the Free Syrian Army, now says that they will not attend any Geneva talks, although there are factions of them that say they might after all attend. Total confusion!

Then we’ve got, I think really, the symptoms of mental disintegration on the part of the backers of the rebels. For example, the Saudi government was offered a seat on the United Nations Security Council, one of the rotating seats, and Saudi Arabia says that they’re not happy with what the Security Council has done so they’re going to go home. It’s like a tantrum. They’re not going to participate in the Security Council. It’s really an absurd thing.

Then we have Secretary of State John Kerry who is reported to be under psychiatric observation for symptoms of schizophrenia. Two weeks ago he was praising the Syrian government for complete cooperation, total cooperation with the survey and inspection of the chemical weapons arsenal which are in the process of being eliminated, and then at the beginning of this week he then had a rage fit and began ranting about his personal opinion that President Assad is illegitimate and has to go. One week it’s “thank you to the Syrian government for your responsible behavior”, and this week it’s “but, by the way, you have to go”.

The political disintegration of this entire adventure couldn’t be any clearer.

Press TV: Briefly doctor, just how much can the Syrian crisis be solved diplomatically and speaking of diplomacy, just what are the chances for a successful Geneva II conference?

Tarpley: Well, it’s obviously important for people of goodwill to try to secure a diplomatic solution. That’s what Russia is doing. That’s what the Assad government has accepted. That’s what quite a number of other governments have supported.

But of course, the Syrian rebels are incorrigible. They simply will not negotiate and that’s the most recent authoritative word we have from the Syrian National Council. So, if they won’t negotiate, one might say that those same rebels are making a military solution at their expense inevitable. If they won’t cooperate with some political solution then only the military solution is actually left.

I suspect that it’s going to be a military solution at the expense of the rebels taking several more months. But I think the die is cast and the situation is going in the direction of the elimination of these micro-states or mini-state or emirates that the rebels have been creating in northern Syria which are absolutely intolerable for the people who live there. The popularity of these people as rulers is at an all time low and most Syrians would like to get rid of them.

At that rate, I think it’s going to be ultimately their military liquidation that will end this.

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Syrian president says his country’s military industry was developed enough and chemical arms are no longer needed against Israeli military attacks.

Speaking to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Bashar al-Assad said his government is totally ready to participate in Russia-brokered Geneva II talks, but he expressed doubt over the participation of such peace conference.

Referring to the uselessness of chemical arms’ usage in this era, Assad said he no longer saw chemical weapons as necessary, explaining that even without his arsenal of chemical gases, he could still resist against Zionist regime attack
Assad said Syria’s advanced missile capabilities were sufficient to deter Israel militarily and therefore he did not need the chemical stockpile.

In fact, he said, Syria stopped manufacturing chemical weapons back in 1997, replacing them with conventional missiles “which are the determining factor on the ground.”

“It is enough to control Israel’s airports with firepower in order to paralyze it,” Assad said. Easily treatable medically, chemical weapons had more of a psychological effect on Israelis than a physical one, he added.

The UN has tasked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to rid Syria of its stockpile by mid-2014. Twenty-seven OPCW inspectors are currently in Syria on mission to inspect over 20 suspected chemical weapons sites across the country.

Assad also blasted the leaders of the Arab world for siding with the West in his opposition.

“No Arab official ever contacted us trying to mediate or offering an Arab solution proposal,” Assad said. The West, he added, “was more dignified in dealing with us than some of the Arabs.”

“Even the conventional military industry, which used to be geared against Israel, is now directed at the domestic enemies. This too is a loss,” Assad remarked of his domestic military complex, adding jokingly that he is more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, this year’s winner.Continue reading →

Syrian army has made considerable advancements near capital despite foreign pressures and threats, clearing two districts completely from extremist militants after days of fierce clashes.

Shaba’a in Rif Dimashq and al-Mestah in Barazeh were cleared in the operation, according to al-Alam reporter on Tuesday.

Barazeh has been scene of continuous clashes between militants who seek to enter the capital and Syrian army soldiers.

The whole town has been evacuated as clashes got heavier during the past weeks.

People have been witnessing brutal scenes of killing and torture in some areas of the country which have been occupied and controlled by anti-Syria groups.

As the Syrian government is struggling with internal and external threats of wider conflicts, people have been forced to live under strict rules imposed by some of the militant groups who benefit international silence on their crimes.

A US plan to bomb the country over a chemical attack near Syrian capital on August 21 was canceled with Russia’s mediation that sought to ease the tensions by putting Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons under international control.

The offer was widely welcomed both in Syria and other countries that were concerned by US military ambitions and its regional consequences.Continue reading →

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LONDON — President Bashar Assad has defeated a U.S. effort to use
Jordan as a launching pad for the overthrow of his regime.

Western diplomatic sources said Assad’s military and security forces
crushed a U.S. campaign to send hundreds of trained and equipped Sunni
rebels from Jordan to regain a key city in southern city.

A Syrian military soldier holds his AK-47 with a sticker of President Bashar Assad that reads “Syria is fine.” /AP

The sources said a force sponsored by the Western-backed Free Syrian Army failed to reach even 10 kilometers within Syria before the rebels were detected and attacked by the Syrian Army.

“This was a well-trained and equipped force meant to eventually reach Damascus and overthrow the regime,” a source said. “Instead, the rebels crossed the Jordanian border and within hours were on the run.”

The sources said the FSA force, with fighters from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, consisted of two battalion-size units, or nearly 600 fighters.

The sources said the fighters, trained by the CIA as well as Jordan’s Special Operations Force Command, were equipped with anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles as well as night-vision systems.

Most of the equipment was said to have come from the former Yugoslavia.
Since late 2012, Jordan has served as the main venue for the U.S.-sponsored
project to train and equip Syrian rebels.

On Aug. 17, the two FSA units crossed the Jordanian border for the
nearby Syrian city of Dera, a distance of fewer than 15 kilometers. But the
sources said the FSA fighters were immediately besieged by Druse and Bedouin
militias and refused help by Al Qaida-aligned units.

“Nobody wanted them, and even those who have been fighting Assad saw
them as a threat,” another source said.

Within hours, Syrian Army units arrived and pursued FSA fighters west
toward the Golan Heights and the frontier with Israel. The sources said
discipline broke down within the FSA units and some of the fighters tried to
attack a United Nations peace-keeping force in the Golan in an attempt to
acquire human shields.

“The CIA plan was simple: To establish an FSA presence in southern Syria
that would serve as a magnet for other opposition forces to march on to
Damascus,” the second source said.

By Aug. 20, the sources said, the FSA force, which contained Western
mercenaries disguised as rebels, was routed, with elements besieged by
Syrian Army units. They said the FSA defeat ended U.S. hopes of using Jordan
for a rapid rebel advance that could decide the Syrian war in 2013.

The sources said the defeat highlighted the increasing isolation of
Washington in directing the rebel campaign in Syria. They said the U.S.
strategy drew from the revolt against Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya in
2011, in which NATO allies used Benghazi as a launching pad for attacks.

“The Americans have been pursuing this Benghazi strategy for more than a
year despite the fact that Syria is not Libya, Assad is certainly not
Gadhafi, and that Damascus has powerful allies that are fighting to save
the regime,” the second source said. “But the feeling among the allies is
that America is not listening.”